Software, Technology

Enable/Disable LAN via Registry

Windows stores a lot of system settings and confugrations in the Registry Database. We can take that to our advantage and control the entire OS environment. This gives an insight of how to use the regedit tool to configure properties of LAN, RAS and other network connections.

— Open your registry and find the key below.

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwarePoliciesMicrosoftWindowsNetwork Connections

— Create a new DWORD value for each required restriction from the list below. Set the value to “1” to enable the restriction or “0” to disable it.

NC_AddRemoveComponents – Restrict add and remove network components
NC_AdvancedSettings – Restrict changes to Advanced Settings
NC_AllowAdvancedTCPIPConfig – Restrict changes to advanced TCPIP configuration
NC_ChangeBindState – Restrict changes to protocol and service bindings
NC_DeleteAllUserConnection – Restrict deletion of public RAS connections
NC_DeleteConnection – Restrict deletion of RAS connections
NC_DialupPrefs – Restrict changes to the Dial-up Preferences
NC_EnableAdminProhibits – Enable Windows 2000 network connections for administrators
NC_LanChangeProperties – Restrict access to component properties of a LAN connection
NC_LanConnect – Restrict connecting and disconnecting a LAN connection
NC_LanProperties – Restrict access to properties of a LAN connection
NC_NewConnectionWizard – Disable the Network Connection wizard
NC_RasAllUserProperties – Restrict access to properties of public RAS connections
NC_RasChangeProperties – Restrict access to properties of a RAS connection
NC_RasConnect – Restrict connecting and disconnecting a RAS connection
NC_RasMyProperties – Restrict access to private RAS connection properties
NC_RenameAllUserRasConnection – Restrict renaming of public RAS connections
NC_RenameConnection – Restrict renaming of connections
NC_RenameLanConnection – Restrict renaming of LAN connections
NC_RenameMyRasConnection – Restrict renaming of private RAS connections
NC_Statistics – Disable status statistics for an active connection

(Default) REG_SZ (value not set)  
  NC_AddRemoveComponents REG_DWORD 0x00000001 (1)  
  NC_AdvancedSettings REG_DWORD 0x00000001 (1)  
  NC_AllowAdvancedTCPIPConfig REG_DWORD 0x00000001 (1)  
  NC_ChangeBindState REG_DWORD 0x00000001 (1)  
  NC_DeleteAllUserConnection REG_DWORD 0x00000001 (1)  

Settings:
User Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwarePoliciesMicrosoftWindows
Network Connections]
Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value: (0 = default, 1 = enable restriction)

The Registry Editor Output screen will look like this.

Enable/Disable LAN via Registry

— Restart Windows for the changes to take effect as all the registry settings are loaded at the time of booting.

Disclaimer: Modifying the registry can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. We cannot guarantee that problems resulting from modifications to the registry can be solved. Use this at your own risk.